Safety Complacency: The Lathen Maglev Train Disaster 2006 | Plainly Difficult Documentary
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- On 22 September 2006, a Transrapid maglev train collided head-on with a maintenance vehicle at the Emplaned Test facility near Lathen, Germany, It was the first fatal accident involving a maglev train.
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2:38
What a coincidence. No one wants to tell me stories about trains at home for some reason.
To be fair ... it's the first time I've heard of one of these worthless projects being shut down ...
meanwhile our actual rails are falling apart. We had a derailment of a freight train just 1/2 mile from the house ... because we can't be bothered to maintain the levees supporting the tracks ...
6:57 What is that person at the top left doing to that old CRT monitor? It looks a bit inappropriate.
@@yarrlegap6940 why would you claim its worthless?
I'm just not in any way surprised that John wanders around his home wanting to talk about trains.
Bot: We'd like to talk to you about your vehicle's warranty
Jon: Hmmmm...Let's make a deal...
Don't we all 😔
Mrs. Plainly: "John! Leave the dog and the baby alone and come back to bed!"
John: "But...this is fascinating"
Love your stuff John ❤
I knew he was a foamer - we see our own 😂
I understand his disappointment… when I talk about trains the whole families eyes just gloss over…😂
Imagine being rammed into and pushed up by a train probably still going over 100 km/h and surviving that. Insane.
Horrific
Worse, think of how horrific it would be of two maglevs collided but neither was able to be thrown clear.
@@mattwalker5689 and in one of the tunnels Musk built..
@@joshdfox420 Is he still trying to fool people with that literal shell of a prototype and track that has sat for so long unmaintained and oxidized to the point even a small child could see it could never be a controlled vacuum?
@@joshdfox420 Musk is a grifter. He'll never deliver vacuum tube trains. Old idea with no future.
As a young boy, I would often stroll alongside the road, right next to the Maglev tracks, hand in hand with my mother. It was one of our cherished traditions, and that day was no different. Little did we know what had occurred just hours before. We were oblivious to the commotion caused by the volunteer fire department rushing to the scene and the cranes being mobilized. It was only as we leisurely walked along that we caught sight of the wreckage in the distance. A completly destroyed Transrapid, a sight that is still in my head to this day.
That would have been bad to see.
A a fellow Lathener?
Wow thanks for that story. I walked that road too, because I was the only tourist who wanted to take the train (from Hannover) instead of driving. A cherished memory for me and you both. I took quite a few photos (with my stupid old film camera) of the train approaching, buzzing electric sounds activating. And the water mist that surrounded it was incredible!
I felt so privileged to see and hear and feel that. And then so annoyed at that slow train back to Hannover! And when I got home to Australia, WOW, I literally thought the drivers were protesting by driving slow on purpose. This Maglev had ruined me.
This was a poorly thought out and poorly designed high speed rail train, sadly =/
@@jonslg240 Nothing wrong with the train Just sloppy procedures.
As a train driver myself, i had similar situations like this one with dispatchers. Recived permission to enter a section of the line where the radio is available partially only due to mountains, was doing 80 kph with my train allready, when the radio startet to crack. I didn´t bother much, because others communicate on the same frequency too, but all of a sudden a passed the mountain and heared a guy from a track gang in the radio talking to the dispatcher "yeah we interrupted work, the line is clear, you can send the train" for the section i was driving in allready... I just though, wtf is going on here, how can you allow a train into a section when the workers haven´t give you the permission to send trains, and at the same moment i came arround a curve and saw them standing right next to track on both sides and equipment everywhere, and was flying by them at 80 kph still... I bet they were shocked too, because normally trains pass work sites at 30 kph only, and what if they had a problem with the track that would have been needed to be fixed first? And i would had to wait... more luck than brains in the whole situation... but that´s not the way on how to operate a railway...
Railroad safety culture is written in blood. Stay safe out there.
@KR4FTW3RK all safety and innovation is paid for in blood because humans are bad at thinking ahead
Was anything done to retrain or reprimand the people who nearly caused a fatal rail accident?? That sounds terrifying.
I don't know how you train engineers do it. You have to rely so much on other people and on equipment being properly maintained since there is very little you can do to avoid a collision once you can see it coming. I don't trust other people that much, dude. I'd have every radio operator double and triple checking their instructions. 😅
@@annakreidel7884 i don´t know, it told him that i was upset by the whole situation. But he´s doing the job for 25 years allready and is known to be some kind of "lost" from time to time and tends to forget things....
One time he was upset with me, because i radioed him 3 times, because the connection was too bad and i could barely understand anything and wanted to have clear instructions.
Yes that´s a fundamental principle of railroading, that people work together and relay on each other. There is also a lot of documentation involved, if stuff isn´t mantained properly and trains fall off the tracks, all the documentation will be confiscated by the prosecuter and checked, and if he finds something he´ll grab the person responsible by the balls. It is said that as a railroader if you don´t obey the rules you´re standing in prison with one leg allready, and with the other one in your grave...
It's km/h, not "kph", as a "train driver" you should know that.
If John is ever feeling depressed, just invite him to talk about trains. 0 to 100% in 6 seconds or less, guaranteed
:D
^ See? What did I tell ya? Happy as a clam
@@PlainlyDifficultI'd be all ears I can tell you that much
When you knocked on the door and politely asked "can I talk to you about railways", I lost my mind and almost died from laughter. This is literally me, but with geology. Hahaha far out. Great video.
Thank you
That’s me with Godzilla😂
What an unhealthy amount of disaster stories have taught me about travel:
When on a train: Always sit as close to the middle of the train as possible
When on a boat: You want to be as close to deck level as possible
When on a plane: Well... Just hope your pilot knows what they're doing
Or hope you have a pilot trained properly to fly the plane type you’re on and they get called up into the control room and studied similar incidents. The folks of the Sioux City plane incident were that lucky
you want to be towards the middle of the plane also, its the strongest part.
That's over-simplistic. People in the first few coaches of the InterCityExpress train involved in the Eschede disaster came off much better than those sitting further back, for instance.
Rail disasters are rare, and your chance of being on a train involved in a serious accident are minuscule. You are much more likely to win the National Lottery than be killed in a rail accident as a passenger.
@@kahlzun Actually statistically the back is a little safer, mostly because the rear section has broken free before by far the fuel ignited and created by far the greatest threat in a plane crash. Such a huge potion of all deaths in plane crashes were people that survived the crash only to be killed by the subsequent fire, so no longer being anywhere near the wings if and when they tear open and the fuel rapidly becomes an inferno is an advantage.
And in an automobile? Isn't risk higher in cars than others?
It's worth pointing out that Maglev is getting another go, particularly in Japan, and that they are *actually building* a full scale for-public-use track *right now* so it's definitely a viable concept given the right circumstances. It *seems* likely that the technology will continue to mature and will see greater adoption, but it is really only suitable for those very high capacity, high speed rail connections where saving time with speed enables more passenger throughput and justifies the cost of the project. Maglevs do have real benefits including in terms of maintenance, but the technology is still maturing and the initial cost is very high
The "viability" part is questionable tho. Not as "can it work?", more so "do we need it?".
If the cost of infrastructure and production of not-trains outweights such for more traditional types of transport, the only other question is "is it more eco-friendly" which has basically the same question.
The main idea of "train goes very fast" isn't something that we really need. Neither in public transportation, nor in commercial transportation.
So far, as you said, it only seems viable in very specific circumstances, and that isn't really fault of "tech not being good enough".
I disagree, particularly on the topic of maintenance. A maglev needs a far more complex supporting infrastructure compared to conventional rail transport. That complexity will inevitably turn into quicker degradation, more frequent preventative maintenance, higher long-term costs, and likely some cut corners. No physical contact with the track also means the train might collide with it destructively in case of a failure.
In my eyes, maglev technology is the same as supersonic passenger airplanes - a cool concept, an engineering achievement, but too many drawbacks and risks for large-scale adoption.
The initial cost may be higher, but if we look at Japan´s highspeed trains and especially their tracks, they need quite some infastructure as well, and the lengths they have to go to make those trains work and stay on its tracks, it´s not that much.
Maglevs are faster, a once proposed line in Bavaria was planned for a top speed of 500km/h, highspeed rail stays below 400kmh in regular service (currently).
While Maglev is less efficient than electric motors (needs additional lift energy), the lack of friction losses in practical application makes it a little more efficient in the end.
The acceleration is better, the Transrapid accelerates to 300 over 4km, the German ICE needs 18km.
Speed is what makes highspeed rail and even Maglev very viable.
Sure, you can fly 500km, takes maybe 45 minutes. Plus checkin and checkout, that easily adds up to 2hrs and more, still you´re nowhere near a city centre.
Rail does that in an hour and can stop right at the central train station.
Plus it runs on electricity which can be produced in dozens of various ways, planes need fossil fuel.
@@seeinred Circumstances always change, so technology not deemed viable at one point can make a lot of sense later, especially when the tech evolves which may be triggered by said changed demands. National flights in some countries have been under scrutiny for instance. If you had connections that can cover 500 miles reliably and safely in 2 hours on ground, that could be a game changer.
@@Wampa842 With your attitude we should be living in caves and rely on hunting and gathering. Anything else is just way too much maintenance. Why get a house with a heating system and a toilet. Think of the maintenance! Just make a fire in the cave and shit in the woods.
I live just a mile away from the track at Lathen. I remember the day when the accident happened like it was yesterday 😢. I had so many contacts to people that worked at the testing facility. I had over 10 rides with the Transrapid. So Quiet and very comfortable at full speed. That feeling when the Transrapid passes over your head at 450kph. Only wind noise no steel wheels on tracks.
But the disaster was the political end of the Transrapid.
I rode this train in Shanghai and it was far from smooth at top speed 🤨
But it was a stupid decision, burrying a project for a human error.
@@PATISLAV Presumably it was buried for a number of reasons, with the disaster being a nail in the coffin. The first commercial airline crash didn't end aviation.
I think we should all stop driving cars now.... Many experiments are written with blood. Also here, so why give up and close it down?
It has become typical German not to go for new ventures.
@@exsandgrounder Both commercial Transrapid Projects in Germany (Hamburg to Berlin and Munich Central Station to the Airport) failed after Enviromentalists rallied against them because of the "evil Magnetic Radiation"
I always have a measure of sympthy for people who cause injury and/or death unintentially. You know that they are not psychopaths - just ordinary people who took their eye off the ball, got a bit lazy, made a bad call, mistake, etc. That doesn't obsolve theml or lesson the harm, but most people make mistakes and get away with it, but they didn't and I don't envy them the guilt and despair of having been the cause of such great harm. Something that will never leave them.
Any system that depends on humans not ever losing focus, forgetting things, etc is inherently prone to failure. That's why we have automated safety systems for trains. OTOH, ensuring that the one train and one maintenance vehicle weren't on the track at the same time does not seem like an overly demanding task.
The security system was crippled by management, to save a few seconds on a track that literally goes nowhere. The dispatchers were just used as a scapegoat.
@@ryancraig2795 right? Airliners and ATC need more and more automation - and procedure - because of the sheer requirements. The latest high speed rail signalling systems also don’t bother with signal lights because how would you do it? Without making traffic lights the size of windmills.
@@whophd never realized that, funny :)
@@whophd In-cab signalling. TGV and Acela trainsets use that, and I'm sure other high speed trains do as well.
John: "with no friction, how does the train drag itself along?"
me: "it's a railgun. but like, for people."
Good description
Spot on!
Next thing you know, the Osean capital has exploded
In population, that is.
@@WhatIsThatThingDoing Belka did nothing wrong.
It's not a rail-gun, it's a coil-gun
I still remember this incident, and I still don't understand why this was used to publicly ruin that project.
Media was all over how unsafe Maglev tech supposedly was, when it was a test site that didn't have anywhere close to the safety equipment installed as modern rail system have.
There were way worse train accidents all over Germany alone in a time were those block signals that were missing here didn't exist...
But in the end of the day we can't be certain whether or not Maglevs are better the normal trains, as we never utilized their benefits fully, or tackled the downsides.
If there is a full infrastructure available already, the chances to roll out new technology that is so vastly different and yet so similar will never happen in a grand scheme.
After all Maglevs are just trains, that require a totally different set of rails, that couldn't be more different than what is used today.
That infuriated me, too.
There was nothing to learn from this incident that was damning of the maglev technology. The only lesson to be learned is that no matter how small and quirky your Railroad is (regardless of whether it meets the technical definition thereof!), you _should not be exempt from the regulations!_
Block switching would have prevented this. Hell, standard industrial lockout/tagout would have prevented this! The only lesson learned here is that we in the 2000s _are not exempt_ from making the same _basic human errors_ that our ancestors in the 1800s made; which is _why_ they made rules to govern railroads!
Yeah, it seems to me like this had as much to do with the train being a maglev as the _Titanic_ sinking had to do with the ship having that one dummy smokestack (which is to say, nothing).
@@ZGryphon agreed. this could have happened on any traditional rail line, or any roadway for that matter
The corporate media are the enemy of the people.
The greens had been against that project for a long time and the ICE-Lobby was in any case against it. Transrapid works as Shanghai SMT for nearly a decade without a problem and the Chinese had at least build one new vehicle "CRRC CF600" and one for low speed. It was that Germany was far ahead in maglev technology that was the problem that needed to be "fixed". Don´t forget: Germany started doing passenger service on maglev trains as the only nation on the planet already in the early 80´s, Japan came ten years later at most. And Germany had the full serial readiness approved in 1991. The fatal mistakes made by the dispatchers during the accident only player it´s enemies into their hands.
John as you know i am a suburban train driver. My wife will literally roll her eyes when I try to talk about work with her. She openly says the only things she interested in regarding my work is the pay slips. LOL at lease she honest. In her defense, she is super supportive when I've been unlucky enough to experience a on track incident. She makes a great train driver wife :P
It gets weirder when you admit to a girlfriend (or spouse) that you're an avid cave explorer... Somehow women tend to get the WORST ideas about guys who like really deep, dark, wet holes in the ground... haha...
...or maybe, it's just "low hanging fruit" because the jokes literally write themselves...
...or maybe I need to stop wearing the head-lamp and helmet to bed... ;o)
Magnets are also great for stopping trains. The railcars i drive have magnetic breaking installed. Roughly, it a rail attach to the train that sit just above the railhead on the track. When activated the magnetic rail drops onto the railhead, given a electric charge and becomes a super magnet. I LOVE magnetic breaking because this is great when you are experiencing a wheel slip event. Mag breaks are the best for wet and slippery tracks. I always say use your mag break so you can avoid using your emergency brake.
this system is in use in amusement park rides everywhere
The Transrapid had emergency friction brakes...huge friction brakes. Basically, the underside of the Transrapid was a huge brake pad.
The emergency braking maneuvers were impressive. The wear on "brake pads" was impressive. In other words, a huge cloud of dark "smoke" (brake pad dust) would be produced in such a case.
Crazy that even a non-commercial test track suffers from managers sacrificing safety to save a few minutes of time. What did they possibly need that extra time for?
Even on a test track. Time = Money. 30 minutes more of testing each day accumulates to 1 whole week of time saved in just 16 weeks. Multiply that by the amount of people to operate it....
To this day I think the Transrapid should not have stopped being developed. As tragic as this disaster was, it was but a reminder to how important strict adherence to rules is. In 1903, the Wright Brothers succeeded with their first attempts of motorized flight. In 1908, Thomas Selfridge was killed as the first fatality in a plane crash. Yet they never stopped to push forward on the idea of flying. Wish they had done the same for the Transrapid.
The interesting thing about the TransRapid system is that it did NOT use magnetic repulsion. It uses magnetic attraction (which is actually easier to manage, as it is self-centering, where magnetic repulsion is like trying to stack two balls atop one another). It maintains a spacing of about 10mm between the attraction magnets and the track (which unlike the Japanese Shinkansen designs is a passive track, which is much less expensive than a powered track). The Japanese Linimo system uses the same idea, but it maxxes out at about 100kph.
Like holding a ball inside a parabola, rather than balancing it on the outside.
Have you seen videos on their experimential maglev train? the Technology and science behind it is SUPER interesting, The train can hover even without power ( Above 150kmh ). The japanese are awesome!
John's TLDR is A+
Being the engineering noob that I am, all I heard was a description of the Turbo Encabulator.
Yeah it really is I couldn’t have done much better myself as it’s not my field, mine is biotech
"magnets make future floaty train go burrrr" - John and I'm going to be using this quote in my science class (school teacher here) as the TLDR, thanks John!
"can i talk to you about railways?" I feel you john, i feel you
🌝
Yeah, people tend to exit the area when I talk about trains.
God, I feel bad for those dispatchers. Bad supervisors and the only vehicles being on different radios? Disaster was bound to happen.
It sounds like everyone was on autopilot in the whole place. They had a toy train that didn't really go anywhere and they were just collecting paychecks.
There needs to be serious prison time, this is stupid. I have seen teenagers with more common sense.
@@1pcfred Well yeah. People go on autopilot when they have to do the same tasks over and over. That's why safety protocols and practices are so important. All too often operators are blamed for doing their job as their managers trained them to do.
@@SnakebitSTI I don't think anyone trained those knuckleheads to space out. But in their defense the system they were operating in could have been better. Apparently everyone from the top down was doing the barest minimum to get by. Collectively it wasn't nearly enough either.
@@1pcfred Noone is trained to "space out", that's an evolved trait of our biology. Brain detects "low activity" -> biological version of sleep mode. We really need to stop blaming people for innate biology, it's literally blaming people for being human.
Here's a suggestion for a disaster not widely known internationally that you might want to cover: The Alexander Kielland (pronounced "CHELL-an") disaster in 1980, in which 123 people tragically died.
DO IT JOHN!!
The KJ-sound in Norwegian does not exist in English and is usually just pronounced K.
@@ivarnordlkken8082 Cute? Or more like Shop? Cheers?
The Deepwater Horizon blowout disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, USA is well-known for its huge out of control sea-bed oil-spill, but few seem to have noticed that 11 oil workers also died.
@@ivarnordlkken8082 Usually, but it's not the closest sound. The closest sound is clearly "ch" as in "check".
"Magnets make future floaty train go brr"
Right, that's enough of an explanation for me 🤣
I live near that old track, I was personally there when I did my presentation in school about that topic. That place has a strange feeling and overall strange vibe to it when you know all the details to what happened back then. Anyways I really enjoyed the video! Keep the good work up! :)
It is now a musem provided by the Förderverein Transrapid Emsland e.V.
I’m always asking my friends if they’d like to talk about railways. I’m right there with you John.
What is the appeal of trains? I've wondered because to me they're a boring necessity; dirty, packed, dangerous, loud, unreliable etc
@@gracie1312 They like trains, they never said they like travelling on trains 🙂
Also, here in the Netherlands at least, riding a train is a quite nice, they are kept quite clean, sure some are very busy but it depends entirely on what line and what time of day you travel, they are next to silent, they are more reliable than bus services... they're quite good actually.
Nothing interests me less than railways. I'm glad they're working for you in the Netherlands but I've never seen a project that didn't amount to a conspiracy against the public.
@@vinny142 that's what I think of when I think of trains/railway stations. So what's the appeal?
@@gracie1312 are you … using American trains? have you tried European ones? Even Australian ones can be amazing. They’re not a “punishment” choice of how to get to work. Like “here, you’re poor, have the filthy option for travel to work”
A a German I would like to share the German word for Maglev with you: Magnetschwebebahn.
Have fun pronouncing!
The desaster was a real tragedy - even more sad to say, it was avoidable. RIP to all victims!
In Dutch it's magneetzweeftrein. Good luck pronouncing the Dutch "g". 🙂
Ich hätte gerne einen Mc Neetschwebebahn bitte xD
@@SeverityOne You Dutch people do not spare the letter "e", do you?😄Really cool word!
Magnet schwebe bahn. The sch group im german is like the sh in english and the w sounds like a v, so it would sound something like "magnet shvebe ban".
Oh come on, my bf even learned to say Krankenversicherung, that's a medium length and difficulty word at best.
I enjoyed this video as you allowed us to see more of your personality, John. Thanks for all the hard work to share this with us!
Magical Levitation.
That one hits close to home. I remember me and my mum driving past this test facility everytime we were visiting my Grandparrents. I always wonderd what this strange concrete construction was. When i asked my mum told me what it was and what happend, its really sad to hear this story and how avoidable this tragedy was...
Probably a planned accident to test rescue/ repair no matter the costs of life and equipment.
@@stick9648 WTF NO who Throws away 20+ Lives for a fucking Test thats fucking insane!! You're completely crazy if you think thats what happened
@@stick9648 what?? 😅 The project literally got shut down after this XD did you vote trump?
"Signalling wasn't a big deal. There was another vehicle"
I don't need to be psychic to see where this is going.
Calls on radio. Receives no answer. Decides everything must be just fine and starts up. Everything definitely not fine.
Sounds like at my last job: We were in the process of clearing a product line jam and the line restarted without warning because someone got impatient. An automatic shut off kicked in a few seconds later because the equipment was still down on our end. When asked why it was restarted in the first place, the angry response was, "Nobody was saying anything so I assumed we could start up again."
Fortunately there were no injuries, but it caused a second mess on top of the one we were already trying to clean up, plus there's now an additional mess at the head of the line as well due to the unexpected sudden stop.
Amazing
Absolutely amazing that such an easily avoidable disaster happened.
If you think it's amazing, then you haven't watched this channel a lot...
@@SeverityOne No it just seems like this particular situation was just stupidly easy to avoid. Nothing like a long chain of events required to set off other disasters like dam failures or factory explosions.
@@theq4602 A lot of the content on this channel centres around non-compliance with safety regulations. Like operators who found a way to get into a room when the cobalt-60 irradiation source was in operation.
The basic problem is that things that keep us safe, are usually bothersome: rules, regulations, seatbelts, safety procedures, passwords... Whenever humans get to deal with these, they find a way to get around them, even though it's usually a very bad idea.
If it weren't for this human condition, John would probably have to find a real job instead of making these videos. 😃
@@SeverityOne Stop trying to lecture me.
@@SeverityOne Like, say, locked doors, to keep out people. Which are then blocked open, because people don't want to always go after the keys. Passwords taped to the keyboard (hi, Mr. Feynman) are essentially the same idea. Whatever improves security also makes life a little harder, and so people try to get around it. The trick is to keep that from happening, and it ain't easy.
Such a shame. One of the highlights of my life was a trip on the Shanghai Maglev. Totally awesome for geeky science folk and train fans.
That was very interesting. Maybe it will be the future of transport one day. Don't most of the innovations we enjoy today start out as costly and seen as a luxury? I can remember one of my uncles saying DVDs weren't going to be popular because they were so expensive and I also remember forking out $400 for a small flatscreen that didn't connect to the internet about 15 years ago. I feel old.
Anyway, what really gets me is the one thing this train could hit and should never hit, it hits. Never say never.
A guy who bought into both Betamax and the Laser Disc system wants a word with you.
@@maxmeier532 Did he buy a Capacitance Electronic Disc player too?
Grade separation on high speed systems like this is fundamentally required as the intent is to prevent all possibility of accidents involving crossings (Of which the vast majority of rail accidents for instance, which Maglevs are closest to in terms of their design are.) and to ensure that they can storm ahead at full speed without disrupting road traffic by requiring barriers and signal systems.
My father worked for Siemens at the time and was invited to come allong for a test drive on this Maglev. My father being the father he is invted me, my brother (Both of us just kids in elementary school at the time) and my mom to come with him and be allowed to go on a ride with the Maglev. It was awesome! Such a smooth ride while going so fast, it was amazing to have done as a kid.
This was one week before the accident. It didn't exactly hit me as a kid, but looking back now, well it could have been the end of our family.
Still, it was an amazing experience and it's such a shame to see this Maglev concept not being continued in Europe.
I still remember hearing about it in the news. As a little boy at the time, my family and I were one of the passengers just a short while (a few weeks I think) before the accident happened. It was really weird and sometimes I think something like "you're lucky that wasn't you" especially since I was and still am fascinated by it and sad about its discontinuation.
I know I certainly didn’t being a 4 year old North Carolinian and all
I drive under these tracks every day on my way to work. Such a shame seeing that infrastructure now slowly decaying. I got to take one ride in the Transrapid as a small child, one thing I still clearly remember was the digital speedometer inside the cabin counting steadily above 400 km/h. Maybe that was in part what sparked my great interest in technology. I was a university student in a different city when I heard about the accident. It was a weird feeling. Now I'm back in the region again. Occasionally I see a maintenance cart sitting on the track.
As a German speaker, I appreciated the "Bälle" joke. Nice work. Underrated. 10/10😂
Thanks, John!! I always enjoy the videos and, of course, the weather update.
Always here for the weather update!
Don't feel bad John, I feel the exact same way at home when yammering on about trains. I say that sitting at my kitchen table looking out the window at the Canadian Nation main through Michigan, USA. Every time something neat goes by, I get excited and call attention to it, to which I get 🙄🙄😴😴 as a response lmao
😂😂
"Bälle"! 😂🤣😅
Someone has a subtle sense for keeping up a running gag. Great job.
Keep up the excellent work my friend! Was soooo excited to get a new video notification from CZcams for you!!
When I was younger my Dad's friend in Germany was part of the maglev project and he let us ride along on a test run. I'll never forget afterwards the front windscreen was a bloodbath of dead birds because they hadn't learned to the Train's route yet and it's near silent
Have you considered covering the 2005 Metrolink train derailment in Glendale, California? At the time I was regularly commuting on a later train on that line and once they got it running again every passenger on the train went silent every time we passed the crash site. It was eerie and sobering.
One of these days we'll be hearing John on an episode of Well There's Your Problem gushing about trains. It'd be perfect, honestly.
Yet another well thought out and read / edited video, thank you John.
I had the luck of riding with the transrapid some months earlier, it was an amazing machine, quiet, fast, roomy.. I'd have loved to see that thing in real big world operation and I'd have become a paying passenger for sure.
I remember reading about maglev trains and maglev trains in tunnels in the late 1970s, early 1980s. (For those who think that Elon Musk's Hyperloop is something novel.) They compared the German and Japanese systems, where the German train "hung" from its magnets, and the Japanese one "floated" on its magnets.
At the time, in my early teens, I thought that the German system looked safer, After all, it could never leave the track. Fast forward 40 years, and whilst the German system is a fading memory, the Japanese are building a maglev track between Tokyo and Nagoya, and possibly Osaka. Tom Scott recently made a video about it.
And although the Japanese obsession with regulations and timetables directly contributed to the Amagasaki rail crash, which killed 107, the spotless safety record of the Shinkansen for over 50 years (in one of the most seismically active countries in the world) makes it difficult to imagine this sort of oversight to happen in Japan.
Let's hope it won't feature in a future episode of Plainly Difficult.
John's dismissal of maglev kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
Very similar talking points used by people who don't like trains at all. Replace maglev with normal train, and normal train with car and it's the same crap as carbrains.
@@SECONDQUEST yeah there’s a bit more potential in maglev than other gadgetbahns, and Japan’s one can at least roll into any normal station I suppose? Certain distances between certain cities require the speed of a plane not a train, to be viable. And despite the expense, it’s still WAY easier and cheaper to electrify a train like this than a plane instead! That power can be entirely renewable and no trouble at all.
@@whophdMaglevs are just too expensive for any other corridor in the world sadly.
I'm so glad you like talking about trains John! This was fascinating👏
Amazing video, this was a fascinating in-depth look into this disaster. Excellent work!
This channel is on track to be my favorite.
Strangely, I've never heard of this despite being German and old enough for news at the time. It did remind me of the "Wuppertal Schwebebahn", which I was surprised to not find on this channel. That suspension railway not only had a tragic fatal incident in 1999 where five people were lost, but also had an elephant fall out of it in 1950. Unless I just didn't look for it thouroughly enough, I'd love to see a plainly difficult video about those incidents. Especially Tuffi the elephant because why on earth would you even do that? To anyone reading this: don't worry, Tuffi survived her fall mostly unharmed, but unfortunately she was a circus elephant.
And there also was exactly same reason - a crash with maintenance. Maybe it's the main reason for most accidents in Germany statistically?
@@fontende that's an interesting question and one I will absolutely not look into 😅 because if it is, is that reassuring (there's a whole lot of maintenance) or rather horrifying (the bit of maintenance we get is done rather poorly)? I sure don't want to know
@@bean2046 that can be explainable in USA with desire for max profits and max exploitation prevailing above maintenance, it's explain why so many their systems old or dirty metro. But in Germany? 🤔 Maybe not so pedantic german at all, all this catastrophic events can be avoided by simple double checking or precise time execution.
Japan operating bullet trains with a window of 3-5 minutes between each other and there was no incidents including during earthquakes, they know how to do reserve line systems, even in old Sony smartphones there was two separate lines for charging, one only from dock station-thats how cosmic equipment made, double independent warranty. I've seen japanese training video for train drivers and it's very strict, they basically making drivers like robots with constant self checking for track signals.
Yes, they got Fukushima disaster, but considering conditions how they got it and comparing for example with american army numerous accidents of dropping nuclear bombs from faulty airplanes on their own territory and even famous disaster of dropped bomb on Spain during training, which don't make mushroom but radioactive contamination was big...it's 10-20 incidents only declassified, but all of them hiding.
@@fontende while in the US on a regular note Freight trains derail and explode in the middle of towns.... Americans shouldn´t lecture the Germans about train safety... They don´t even have a nearly as good expanded rail network than Germany has, not to speak about "California high speed fail".
Why would you put an elephant on the Schwebebahn? Plain and simple, it was a PR gag... or should I say, it was a PR stunt. That circus thought it would be fun and attract more people to their shows.
Unfortunately (?) I don't think there's a whole lot of material to find on the incident to make a whole video from it. In fact, there are no film or photo documents of the actual jump, because all the newspaper photographers had been on the Schwebebahn along with the circus staff and Tuffi. All the pictures that are published nowadays (on postcards, for example) are "photoshopped", if you want to call it that (given the incident happened in 1950).
The 1999 crash is a whole different story indeed. There should be lots of material to find and study, and actually I would totally love to see a video on that. Being from Wuppertal myself, I remember that day all too well. When I got ready for high school that morning, my dad had - as usual - the radio on and when I came into the living room he was like "You can't go on the Schwebebahn today!" Given that I don't have to take it to get to school anyway as my way to school was roughly on a north-south-axis and the Schwebebahn runs from west to east, I was like "Why would I plan on it anyway?", to which my dad replied "Yeah, it fell down this morning...", and I was like WTF?! My high school was just "around the corner" from where the crash happened, so of course some of my classmates and me went there to see it (despite being explicitly told by our teachers not to leave the school premises to go there, but hey, we were 15/16 at the time and didn't really give a hoot)... quite the picture, really.
So yeah, if you decide on doing a video on the 1999 Schwebebahn crash, feel free to contact me, maybe I can help out a bit! ;)
Honestly one of the best YT channels.
Raw good information thanks
The only 2 vehicles they had to worry about, and they collided them. Can't think of anything more incompetent.
I love how that maintenance vehicle is probably just the cheapest thing they could build for it’s purpose and it had wheels 😂
They dropped the ball there
for practical purposes it makes sense that it uses wheels so it can work indepentendly regardless of the track condition- which it is supposed to check.
I love this channel, and thank you for the giggles and chuckles!
Enjoy the sunny day John. Another great video.
As much as I like a video about transrapid, this one does contain some (mostly minor) errors:
1. At 3:45 What you see is not Transrapid 01, but rather another prototype not going by the name Transrapid
2. At 3:49 It should be noted that it did not run in Munich, but rather at the IVA in Hamburg.
3. At 5:07 It is correct, that Transrapid 08 did only do about 420 km/h on the test-track, but this was due to the limited length of the track. The vehicle was actually designed to go up to 500km/h.
4. At 5:43 The Transrapid was designed from the ground up to be controlled autonomously via the Control-center. Proper Systems for ensuring safety were developed and used for the Transrapid vehicle on the track, but since it was a test track and apparently nobody thought this could happen, it did not include the maintenance vehicle. On a normally operating track (like in Shanghai) this could not have happened since all vehicles would be integrated into the safety systems of Transrapid. Furthermore, in the following operation with Transrapid 09, the maintenance vehicles were integrated into the system.
5. At 8:00 The Transrapid did actually brake for the last bit before the collision.
6. At 11:27 While many did lose their jobs, not all did. Since the test-track still stands in part and must be watched for debris falling off of it, some workers actually still run the maintenance vehicles along it every so often. Furthermore, a few of the technicians still work on the site, but on another project, namely inductive charging of electric cars.
At 11:45 China is actually still working on the Transrapid Technology, even developing new trains on its basis (the best known example is the CRRC 600), although they did not build another long track, yet.
caution we found the maglev nerd. Who asked? lmao
So did the test train really go to 420 km/h? I’ve done the Shanghai one at 431 km/h (tip: do your research on times-of-day) but when I did the Emsland test track, it only did 300, and the 200 speed around the curves felt SLOW, haha
So on that day 22 years ago, it only did 300 but was that normal? (It felt great). We only did one circuit of the track instead of two, and got kicked off thanks to a minor malfunction. It was easily fixed in time for the next scheduled ride but of course tickets were sold out weeks in advance. (Having come from Australia, and with a train to catch back to Hannover, I was a bit upset and arguing - they didn’t like it). So perhaps I got more of a raw deal that day than I knew?
@@whophd Yes it definitely did go that fast. Quickly doing a search on CZcams, I found this video where it does 410km/h: czcams.com/video/Tf7ITzd8CMo/video.html, but it did go even faster. To my limited knowledge, the official record at the Test-track was 450km/h (although I suspect that visitors were not allow to take part in this one) and I do recall seeing a video where it goes 420km/h, although I could not find it quickly.
As a German who knows the story by heart and loves the Transrapid and Maglev technology in general, it's just plainly difficult.
It hurts so much knowing that a human messed up and we essentially abandoned the technology because of that. Yet, after Eschede, we didn't abandon ICEs. We could've invested so much more and research a lot more into this technology... Yet, we abandoned it... :/
Unfortunately, I never got the chance of riding the Transrapid nor seeing it in person.
If I recall correctly, a few people are currently having some sort of museum on which you can visit and donate for restorations on the vehicle(s). I hope Germany gives that another honest try.
I wouldnt necessarly say we abandoned the technology because of the accident. It certainly didnt help but the test track was shut down because the research was deemed completed and the license for the track ran out that year. The projects that were cancelled were mainly canceled because of costs especially compared to real world benefits and other political decisions. Like I already said, the accident certainly didnt help but its not really the main reason we abandoned it
@@Guy-Zero deemed completed? Not true.. ThyssenKrupp still working on it. China working on it and they just showed a new Train in 2019. There is a Track in Shanghai and more are planned like in Turkey and Brazil. We are just stupid here in Germany or it was better to sell the Technology to China.. Typical for Germany to sell our technology to China.
@@Guy-Zero The accident has nothing to do with the closure of the test track.
The projects that were cancelled were cancelled as such. That means they were not built as a normal route, they were not built at all! Even in the Hamburg Berlin pilot project, only the track was partially renewed but not newly built and certainly not for these speeds.
@@cappuccinoloffler That's what I said. The accident is not the reason for the closure of the test track
Good to hear from you, John.
I live close to Lathen and I've seen the old track many times. I know many people who rode with it, my mother included. Everyone was fascinated by it and everyone is certain that ending the project in Germany was one of the biggest mistakes ever made by the german government. This cost us A LOT of progress in infrastructure and development.
I'd love to see your take on the Granville disaster in Sydney Australia.
👍
And the Waterfall disaster. The “guard” on the train really copped a public backlash thanks to the job title being seriously out of date, even 20 years ago. (Spoiler: no changes yet. In fact the new driverless trains have 50% with staff just walking around to actually keep people safe, or answer questions … really nice)
Just a bad day at the office ..
I'm a die hard fan of our french hover train, the Aérotrain. The Transrapid was a competitor to our thing, the project was started in response, a different tech, still, there were contacts between engineers teams (one of the early Transrapid prototype was even an air cushion hover train, technically a copycat!). I know that wheel-less trains are the way to go, high speed trains are just way too expensive and maintenance intensive (i'm french, okay? I'm well placed to know that our TGV is a taxpayer money pit...). And I was devastated when I've heard about this disaster. I instantly knew it was the unjust nail in the coffin for the whole project.
I still have a sealed pack of postcards from Lathen test track, a gift from a Transrapid engineer. It will stay untouched for ever.
There is nothing more better than the sound of wheel hitting the gap between the rails.
I thought the Shinkansen bullet trains here in Japan were maglev and I was about to ask what you were on about, but it turns out it's still just in testing here as well. Though apparently it is supposed to become public soon?
But now I feel dumb for assuming they were maglev despite having lived here so long. Thanks for helping me fix that, hah!
To be fair, if anybody was going to have had this tech going since the 1960s, it would have been Japan.
Surely, you heard the wheels and saw the rails?
@@franklittle8124 Most of the Shinkansen is fenced off so it's hard to see the track itself, and if you look at the side of the train, the wheels are covered in aerodynamic fairings. But yes, all the lines in current service are "normal" standard-gauge railways.
The maglev is (was) shedueled to open for comersial service to 2027
It’s not so much in testing as under construction! I would like to place a bet that China will turn off the Shanghai maglev in a few years and then Japan will turn its one on. At least the Japanese one actually goes somewhere. For a centrally-planned economy, China’s one was bizarrely and suspiciously designed to stop somewhere useless, instead of go to a useful part of Shanghai.
Is this technically a monorail disaster? Or the closest we will get to a simpsons monorail disaster.
Monorail is self descriptive: it uses a single rail and being a much older technology, uses basic electronic systems, no magnetic levitation.
Basically a subway train supported by one rail, which is why they're inherently dangerous: not enough structural stability.
Monorail vehicles generally wrap around the rail (for conventional train-on-rail) or the rail wraps around the overhead bogie (for suspended train-under-rail). They are very safe and structurally sound; you generally need a total failure of either the vehicle or the rail to cause a derailment.
This wrap-around business means switching monorail vehicles to another track is tricky.
Maglev vehicles are monorail, as magnetic levitation does not adequately guide the vehicle laterally and therefore the track has to wrap the train, or the train has to wrap the track.
@@davejones9469 yeah I think this is a bit of a monorail event! It fits the technical definition despite the magnets.
Springfield Monorail disaster 100%
@@EM.1 A good jingle can get so much done though! "YVAN EHT NIOJ!" EVERYONE!
I love your train videos. Hope for more soon
I'm glad you like to talk about trains. We like listening to you.
John if you did a 3 hour video on trains, I would watch it. Who doesn't love trains?
Same, fam.
Thanks for the video John!:)
Very important (joking) Trivia: The slang name for testicles isn't "Bälle" (=balls), but something like "Eier" (=eggs) in German. "Bälle" really just means those round things you can play with ... well:)
But to needlessly murder the joke even more: "Eier" isn't really used as an exclaimation in german.
Ä=E in case someone doesn’t know German change of pronunciation for the Ä.
I love that simple explanation of maglev technology is that it goes burr 😊 (also hi as I only just seen your CZcams channel so watching a bunch of your videos now)
Thank you John, well done as always. I am currently coming to you from my very cloudy and dark corner of the US. Next week, the Northeast and we'll see, lol. Have a great weekend.
I grew up in Lathen, close enough to the tracks that I could hear the very distinct noise the train made when driving. My grandparents would often take me for walks around the tracks. Never thought I would see a video about this here. This hits close to home bc one of the people who died in the crash was my karate teacher I had for several years.
Did the karate teacher get replaced with a different one?
@@tylern6420 I dunno by he time this happened I had moved away already. He was my karateteacher when I was still in elementary school in the early 2000s
A very good report on the accident, except of one thing (which I'm actually surprised noone earlier spoke up about in the comments): The Transrapid is NOT a Maglev!! Maglev and Transrapid are the names of two transport systems using magnetic levitation. You though can say Transrapid is a maglev train, but not a Maglev (notice the capital letter). The Transrapid can be seen in this video and today is only in operation between Shangahi city and the airport. Meanwhile Maglev is used in Japan on some tracks. But what is the difference? Well, there are two main differences.
Firstly, the Transrapid "grips" around its track in a claw-like style, as can be seen in the video, while the Maglev runs inside a tray-like track (looking a bit like a bobsley in the ice canal).
Secondly, one system creates magnetic levitation with repelling two similar poles from each other, while the other system uses the attraction of two opposite poles. And if I remember right, the Transrapid is pulled upwards by attracting forces, because the magnets are on the downside of the track and in the tips of the "claw". But about this certain part I am not 100% sure. Nevertheless one system attracts the train, the other one repells it. Propulsion in both systems is generated by linear induction motors, like it was told in the video.
I appreciate your effort to translate "balls". It's a classic keyword on this channel, that marks the exact moment when the situation sinks into those at the levers.
So much of what can only be described as stupidity and dereliction of duty. I worked the rails fifty years ago and even then this situation had multiple layers of safeguards. Human failures exclusively.
It is really sad Maglev was ultimately shut down. Weren't it for the accident it may just have been the revolution Germany's public transport is lacking today. Just recently the head of infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn said in an interview "Zu voll, zu alt, zu kaputt" which roughly translates to "[The German rail network is] overused, too old and too f'ed up".
One of the most modern ICE connection (Berlin Central - Munich Central) takes between 3h50 to 4h for 504km with 5 stops in total, that's about 130 kph on average. That's comparable to the LNER high speed connection from Edinburgh to London which takes around 4h for 534km with 3 stops. Now imagine you'd have a Maglev between Berlin and Munich instead. I'd bet it would compare in terms of speed more to something like the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka that takes only 2h27 for 514km (that's an average speed of 220 kph). Mind you, that line has 13(!) stops. Plus, due to the need of a separate railway network for the Maglev the punctuality would be greatly increased, compared to the measly 65% punctuality of the DB in 2022.
'Magnets make future floaty train go Brrrr'.
I need to rest my brain after that scientific deep-dive!
Scientific papers lack decent tldrs
I’ve rode on the Shanghai mag lev train. The ride is not as smooth as advertised and a few years later there was the disaster when the raised columns collapsed. The construction company used garbage to use as filler rather than concrete to save money.
You crack me up !! I love your vids !!
I was thinking "Oh how can it go wrong when theres only one vehicle on the line."
Then you broughtuo the maintance vehicle, instantly went.
"For f*ck sake."
Another great saturday plainly difficult documentary👌👌
Maglev systems always got my interest.
Technically, this is probably the only way for a maglev to hit something?
As two maglev's never can frontally or rear end crash onto eachother right?
John being a person in house that only wants to talk about trains and nuclear disasters, that must be something else haha
He probably even has a legacy rating of the food at home 😂
I think John sounds like a fun housemate. As long as he doesn't mind my occasionally turning the subject to shipwrecks or terrifying emerging viruses. ("And this is why I think Marburg is completely underrated, compared to Ebola...")
If you had two maglevs on the same track, of course they would be able to crash into each other, just as much as normal trains can. But a maglev line with more than one train would have block signalling to keep the trains apart.
The simplest system that would have prevented this particular accident is also a very old item of railway equipment: a single-line token. Only one token is issued for the line section, and only a vehicle carrying the token may proceed along the line. The maintenance vehicle would have been carrying it when performing their sweep, and would not have handed it back until they were clear of the line - hence the maglev driver would not have had it and would not have started his train.
@@Kromaatikse The Transrapid track consists of 2km sections. Only the section with the train on it receives power. That also means that the controller always knows where a train is underway.
The Transrapid track *is* the motor. It is controlled externally, so a Transrapid cannot change direction on its own.
The Transrapid has batteries on board, but these only serve to keep the Transrapid aloft (and lights/AC/etc running) when the track loses power.
The single-line token was, AFAIK, implemented, and, apparently, even electronically enforced.
Someone forgot the single-line token. Guess someone got too used to the job after 20+ years without an incident.
@@klausstock8020 The maintenance vehicle wouldn't have been affected by power supply sections, since it was independently powered with a diesel engine (and, obviously, wasn't a maglev itself).
@@Kromaatikse Yes. I was, mainly, referring to "maglev/maglev interference".
Whatever. The token ("Fahrwegsperre") had not been used. Actually, it had not been used for the whole week. So it seems people got too confident. And yes, this negligence was documented! Not just "one bad day".
The guys responsible for safety were, naturally, charged...because the established (but ignored) "token procedure" had not been put into writing. Yeah, that typical German. "Everyone knew, but it wasn't written down, so no one knew..."
Compare that to Eschede, some years earlier. "Oh, we 'forgot' about maintenance, but at least the procedures were written down, so not a problem at all!"
The ICE, despite more casualties (actually the worst train deserter in Germany, maglev or conventional), did not get scrapped. But that's fucking politics.
Yes.
The f word. Literally. The decision-makers were, literally, in bed with the "Schienenfreunde" cartel.
Okay, getting a bit off-topic here.
For additional reference, 300 metres is roughly a quarter mile...
When you, or someone you know, is approached by a stranger asking "can I talk to you about railways", it's always best to just say yes. Mainly because if you say no, they are just going to talk to you about railways anyway.
Ever since i discovered your channel i have been enjoying your videos, good job! But im still wondering about that suggestion i made for a video idea, (in the comment section of the video about the Marlie Farm Fire works Disaster 2006), about the 2018 Mall Fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo. I assume the reason why you haven't covered the topic yet is the difficulty of finding sources and information about certain events and, i fully understand that making content is a tedious process, but just to be sure if i should keep my hopes up or not, is it going to happen someday? or are there topics that are far more interesting? Still, i do enjoy the current videos alot! Keep it up!
This technology definitely has merit but communication is always an issue. Although, this accident was actually a good test to see how maglevs deal with collisions. I really think they shouldve resumed testing.
Really enjoy your disaster videos that concern transportation and infrastructure. Especially trains, since you're the only disaster creator that cares about train braking and signalling systems.
Speaking of, there's no shortage of train disaster topics what with the epidemic of derailments that's been happening in the US. I'm also kinda surprised you haven't covered the Armagh train disaster yet. There's plenty of accidents that occurred in the UK and Ireland before it, and I'm sure India has plenty I've never heard of.
Exactly John! I totally agree, no one wants to listen to me talk about trains either XD
Take a trip to Salt Lake City. Someone will bargain with you.
I grew up around 10 Kilometers away from the test track. I actually boarded the Transrapid once I can still remember the day of the crash, it was horrible.
I've always wondered what the three lines that appear in the top right corner signify, I used to think that was when you insert an opinion or something, but that doesn't always deem like the case. Love the channel :3
In 2006 I rode on the Shaghai Maglev to the airport.. 8 minute trip for I think it was 80 RMB. For a once in a lifetime experience it was worth it; but if you're departing from the airport, it doesn't take you close enough to make the price worth it. If you take the maglev, you still have to find a bus/taxi to get you to the center of the city. Or you can just take a bus from the airport that'll take you into downtown and you only lose 10 minutes.
Blaming the dispatchers here was a mistake. Clear process failure, something like this shouldn't have been possible in the first place. Blame the program managers who decide to create a system where this sort of human error is even possible. Culture of blaming the 1st order causes makes people feel good but ultimately doesn't prevent further incidents.
After all, it was still a test track, not a commercial operation. So it was no mistake, it was there job to ensure the few vehicles on the track wouldn´t collide and the test rund are safe. Even on the normal railroads, we workes like this back then. And in special cases still today.
Amazing and life changing tldr. Thank you for such an amazingly useful summary.
I’ve needed a good reliable source for a friend
Honestly it's such a shame that projects like these get shut down not because of issues with the actual system but because of errors that could have happened on a frikkin roller coaster. Imagine all the decades and decades of work engineers put in. All the lovingly meticulously designed parts of the system to make it the best possible for the countless people that would travel on it.... and then it only ever gets used once in china. All because of a public that doesn't have confidence in new tech.
The shurdown was clearly political the maglev powesed a problem for some of the big political doners, so they had to shut it down.
It's interesting how complicit the media was lying about it. Lies that are taken as facts to this day.
I really appreciate this one, because I live like 20km from the track, but I'm quite upset that I never got the chance to ride that thing before they crashed it
Ah yes, the futuristic maglev train! By 1979 we'll be operational, and by the year 2000 maglev lines will crisscross the continents!
But they'll face stiff competition from flying cars by 2019.
Great video! I have just one problem with the end of it. You almost make it sound like the accident was the cause for the project to be shut down but actually it was just that the research was deemed completed and the license for the track ran out that year. There were planned projects for Transrapid lines in Germany but they all got cancelled after some time (some say because of money, some say because it wasnt worth it for the planned distances etc)
They couldn't even run a carnival ride of a mag lev without a gross loss of life. A smashing success I'm sure. Having no other projects is surely just coincidence right?
@@bruticus0875 Pretty stupid comment ngl. The crash had nothing to do with the technology itself. Stop using a tragedy to falsely justify your stance on something
@@Guy-Zero I don't have a stance. You actually think the deaths of so many had no impact whatsoever on mag lev projects going forward. Stop minimizing the impact of a tragedy on your fav industry, while coming up with other excuses why said industry failed.
Thank you, this was really interesting, if tragic. The outro music is solid. Cheers.